One North is an innovative commercial development that was designed with a clear set of values involving community, environment,and resiliency. The project provides office and retail space on a brownfield site, with a focus on maximizing energy efficiency, reducing waste and consumption, and sharing resources with the community. Coupled with a strong commitment to neighborhood values and collaboration, One North represents an entirely different approach to commercial buildings.

Composed of three mixed-use office buildings with ground-floor retail, the development surrounds a new 14,000 square feet courtyard intended to create a vibrant community space for use by both tenants and the neighborhood. Purpose-built to achieve exceptional energy efficiency through a blend of leading-edge strategies, the Karuna East (4 stories) and West (5 stories) Buildings at One North were modeled to perform 50% more efficiently than a typical new building in Oregon. They are also expected to be 60% more efficient than the average US office building, including existing buildings.

Sustainability strategies include a super-insulated airtight building envelope, exterior shading, and locally-sourced and sustainably-harvested wood siding. The design team also implemented highly efficient mechanical systems and the near-elimination of thermal bridges. The Karuna East & West Buildings both have photo-voltaic arrays for on-site electrical production (71 kw), thermally broken doors and windows for energy efficiency, and insulation on all sides of the buildings, including the foundation.

Instrument, an independent digital creative agency, occupies the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the East Building, with retail on the ground floor, and the West Building is home to several commercial office and retail tenants.

Instrument, an independent digital creative agency, occupies the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the East Building, with retail on the ground floor, and the West Building is home to several commercial office and retail tenants.

Built in 1993, Republic is a 600,000 square feet office development with retail and leisure amenities and 471 car parking spaces situated on a prominent 6.4-acre island site in the London Docklands. It is currently being refurbished and reimagined by Trilogy Property and La Salle Investment Management to appeal to the burgeoning innovation, co-working, cultural and tech sectors. With a distinctive building wrap from Studio Hingston and designs from award-winning architect Studio RHE, Republic aims to provide competitive rents to young talent priced out of central London locations such as the West End and Shoreditch.

Republic’s location, directly accessed by East India DLR station in E14, anticipates the eastward migration of the creative and digital sectors and cultural institutions, such as the English National Ballet’s move to London City Island and Olympicopolis in Stratford, and enjoys a Zone 2 location and transport links which connects in minutes to the established business districts of Canary Wharf, the City and West End, as well as the cultural neighbourhoods of Stratford and Shoreditch.

As the primary home of the London Internet Exchange and one of the main conduits for internet traffic from the US to Europe, the Docklands offers a digital hub alongside its strong cultural heritage – the grassroots Trinity Buoy Wharf has been host to local artist studios and cultural bodies since 1996.

Architects Studio RHE have unveiled their designs for Republic, a dynamic collaborative campus focused on well-being, connectivity, creativity and flexibility.

The first phase of work on Building R1 started on-site in October 2016, and sees the building updated with the re-cladding and extension of the facades at ground and first floors. This creates a new transparent, modern aesthetic to house the amenities including retail, bars and cafes with extensive outdoor terraces.

Modern engineered timber and black steel continue inside the building with a dramatic, extended atrium space over 10 storeys, built entirely from a glulam timber grid.

The design is centred around well-being at work with increased daylight, better levels of ventilation, direct connections with nature and planting in the biodiverse central gardens. A plan layout encourages the use of the carefully placed central staircase over the first three floors, with extensive undercover local cycle parking, a large gym and extensive planted roof terraces.

Collaborative working is encouraged through the provision of shared work and meeting space inside the atrium at ground floor level, which connects directly to the external communal terraces and water gardens.

Designed to appeal to the next generation of creative and tech businesses, Republic will create an attractive work and leisure environment, becoming a new neighbourhood in this previously overlooked corner of London’s Docklands.

A 10,000 sq ft co-working space, event space and rooftop bar on the 9th Floor is set to launch in January 2017. Off-Quay, a temporary cultural hub and Quilombero, a restaurant launched by East End food stars Missy Flynn and Gabriel Pryce, are already operating on site.

Completing in phases over the next five years, the development is expected to compete on price with key locations in the South East and major UK regional centres, coming in at half the price of current occupational costs in Shoreditch and just one third of the West End. The first building is set to complete in October 2017.

The campus will eventually provide 650,000 sq ft of low-cost high-quality affordable workplace, a wide range of amenities, generous public realm and extensive green spaces around the existing lake.

Richard Hywel Evans, Director of Studio RHE, commented:

“This is an exciting opportunity to transform a 1990s office complex into a dynamic collaborative 21stcentury campus. The creation of varied flexible working spaces, installation of innovative amenities and facilities, combined with extensive new public realm, will create a sustainable unique new working neighbourhood.”

Robert Wolstenholme, Director, Trilogy Property added:

“It is great to be working again with Studio RHE following the success we shared at the Alphabeta Building. The journey from Shoreditch to Tower Hamlets has been a deliberate one, as we look to create the next generation of offices bringing new innovations in sustainability, wellness and placemaking. Our aim is to create a “trophy” workplace for London but deliverable at occupational costs comparable to Manchester, Birmingham or Reading”.

Republic is the latest workplace development by Studio RHE, and follows the success of Alphabeta in London/Shoreditch, which was fully let at completion in 2015, and was later sold for a £200 million premium by the developers Resolution. Alphabeta won extensive awards in 2016 including; RIBA London, BCO Regional and National Awards and was shortlisted by the NLA and AJ Retrofit Awards.

Studio RHE

Studio RHE is a London-based practice with a global reputation for delivering bold and innovative architecture.

Its highly skilled team is renowned for the fast generation of concept ideas and hands-on project delivery. Its latest London project, Alphabeta, which draws on the practice’s experiential hospitality and retail design experience, has placed the practice at the forefront of new thinking in workplace design.

With a range of further high profile projects coming to completion, Studio RHE is fast gaining a reputation amongst clients as an architect with both creative originality and commercial nous.

Designed by Andrew Bromberg at Aedas, Gemdale Changshou Road is located within the inner ring of Shanghai urban city, near the historic Changde Road with close proximity to two metro stations and a planned future green area in the residential zone on the south. The 45,000-square-metre project consists of an office tower and a retail podium. The project had an interesting challenge as a bridge between the low-rise, residential developments to the south and Changshou Road to the north.

The retail steps away from the tower setback to the property edge, with lush terraces as an extension of the green park to the south. Entrances for the retail are visible at both ends facing the busy pedestrian junctions and connecting the two metro station entrances. The lower portion is highly accessible bringing a missing ‘humanism’ to the urban fabric. The tower itself was deliberately ambiguous with the soft forms dissolving into both the surroundings and the sky above. Its form, articulation and softness were considered to allow the tower to float above the green terraces of the retail below as a ‘cloud’ may sit on hill.

The tower’s placement and angular orientation is a deliberate result of optimising open views, creating a visible form along Changshou Road. To further direct the building’s energy towards this important main street, the curtain wall façade of the front face gently ripple towards the top further dissolving the expression by softening the reflections of the surroundings. A recessed ‘cave’ below breaks down the mass to a pedestrian scale and allows the terraces below to dissolve up into the tower. Tight horizontal extrusions open up towards the South as sunshades, reducing solar gain into office floors. Glass curtain wall uses high-performance, energy-saving, low-e, low-iron glass. The natural landscaping on podium terrace balconies also reduces solar gain into the project by maximising the green on site in a naturally-ventilated environment.

Rennes dates back to the 18th century and is organised around two main squares, the place de la Marie and the place du Parlement. In the centre, old and new coexist together with Gallo-Roman remains, Louis Arretche’s futuristic Le Mabilais, Georges Maillols’s Les Horizons and more recently, the residential Cap Mail by Jean Nouvel. This Métropole is among the most attractive areas to live in France and its diversity of heritage and growth led to a shift in emphasis from the centre to the city’s outer areas connected by the pedestrianised Mail François Mitterrand. This move from a rural to urban context has meant denser developments occurring at the edges, to prevent encroachment onto the countryside. The growth in population and industry has called for measures to cope with future change, most notably for more housing and efficient transport routes. MVRDV, ALL and Giboire respond to this need for more sustainable housing communities and will contribute to the expansion of the centre by breathing new life and refocusing communities along the rivers.

This 8,200m2 complex will consist of 135 dwellings, a mix of private residences and a third offered as social housing. All of the apartments have outdoor spaces with balconies facing the waterfront, loggias and terraces. They are also positioned on split levels so no view is directly opposite. Trees and greenery from the public square connect upwards to the green rooftops following the façades. The building’s distinct curved façades, slope from river level to the roofs allowing for views of the city. At night, the top part of the buildings light up and provide a new night silhouette for the confluence.

“The project is intentionally very open. Open to the Vilaine, open to the city and open towards nature,” explains Nathalie de Vries, co-founder of MVRDV. “As part of the expansion of Rennes, we designed a dense urban area that offers more public access to nature, private greens and fantastic views. Densification only works when it comes with added qualities, and that is our ambition for these inhabitants.”

The curved typology makes the roof top garden on the second floor inviting and accessible for residents, where a workshop and diverse botanical garden will also be located. The exterior façade’s distinct grey colour is made from three different textures, and gradations in its colouring resemble rock formations found in a natural landscape. The design idea was to create more cohesion with defined volume instead of individual and smaller units. The building’s distinct identity is in-keeping with the surrounding area’s landscape and at the heart of this development, a public square extending through steps along the riverbanks and creating a buzzing area for dining, socialising and taking in views of the adjacent floating garden, Jardin de Confluence.

The regeneration of the central landscape piece of the Business Technology Park in the heart of Zhongguancun will give place to this unique destination of shopping, entertainment, gardens and outdoor events. The four-storey development integrates with the landscape forming a new gentle topography for the site amongst indoor and outdoor spaces and activities. A sinuous spine circulation leads to atriums and event spaces associated with theme clusters such as Technology, Fashion, Entertainment, Convenience, Sport, Family & Kids and Education.

A new iconic landmark in the landscape of Ulaan Bataar, Shangri-La Centre UB will define the new trends of shopping in Mongolia. Set to become the highest-end of retail centers in the Mongolian capital, its 30,000 sqm of shops and restaurants will integrate the new Shangri-la Hotel and the adjacent office and serviced apartment towers. The design uses stone and timber, warm and light tones to create a warm and bright welcoming environment for people to gather and shop.

“Car Experience” is a project for a building to be dedicated to the automobile: the car as an object of desire, a world to explore, a technology to study, an article to display and a means to travel around the building.

­Here the world of the automobile intersects with the human and organic world creating a new tectonic structure with methods differing from the usual flat open spaces, squares… all on a human scale. Here everything is geared to the automobile – the car is the point of reference.

Here one will not find stairs to different floors, walls and elevators, but ramps which wind sinuously upwards creating a fluid conception of space, and where the flux of cars can move freely and reach the different levels of the edifice.

On an overall scale the area tectonically resembles a road, with a structure similar to that of an elevated motorway or a car park, but on a more human scale, the structure is as complex, ergonomic and sophisticated as the interior of a car.

The principal structure of the building is a spiral ramp with a glass partition dividing the exterior from the interior. In the internal part, reserved for pedestrians, the incline is more gradual, whereas the exterior and steeper side is for the transit of cars.

The building’s typology develops sequentially, its structure similar to that of a film where the undisputed protagonist is the automobile. In fact the visitor, as the spectator of a film, is obliged, frame by frame, to follow the physical and psychological route as dictated by the museum’s architect.

The visitor enters the museum with his own car and initiates the exhibition’s journey as on a safari, going up the external spiral and experiencing a rather “extreme” sensation – as the ramp consists of rapid ascents and descents which create an undulating, uneven surface facilitating the exhibition of cars from different angles and enabling the visitor to observe them from either above or below. This alternating movement with its practical yet amusing function creates a corresponding visual effect on the outer façade of the building, which appears as a fanned sheet of paper, folded and refolded, and where each fold is an opportunity to exhibit at a suitable angle the cars which are attached to the inclining floor.

The route through the museum for the visitor who arrives by car will thus start at ground level and will ascend via the spiral ramp to the top of the building. Here he can park his car and enter into the museum on foot following the exhibition’s descent to the ground level via the more gradual spiral. He can then take an elevator to return to the top of the building to collect his car; should he have arrived in a car with a driver who is awaiting him at the short-term car park at ground level, he can go there directly from below and leave from there.

In this way visiting the museum is divided into two types of experience:

The first is the experience of going up in one’s own car. As one ascends one advances chronologically from the more modern cars down below to arrive finally at the vintage cars on the top level. With this route one starts from a ground display level where the ceiling is 9 metres high and one arrives gradually at the highest display at the top of the spiral where the ceiling is only 4.5 metres high.

During this route the car ramp is uneven and the abrupt ascents and descents as well as the inclination of the cars exhibited, encourage the observer to frequently change both focus and view point; this generates a versatile experience which is rich in visual and perceptive stimuli.

The second is the experience of going down on foot. Contrary to the previous experience the descent starts chronologically from the display of vintage cars at the top and arrives at the more modern cars on the ground floor. The descending spiral ramp has an incline which alternates gradually from 0 to 7%, and thus the flooring slopes imperceptibly and takes the observer to the ground level with minimum effort, as on a slide. In this way it becomes possible to appreciate fully the exposition and not be distracted by steps, elevators or other obstacles; the visitor’s vision is free to wander, unencumbered.

Along the surface of the ramp there are occasional glass blocks or “prisma” which protrude from the flooring and ceiling. Their size, depth and type depend on their function as each one is intended for something different, for example if the area is intended for open space functions, or if it is intended for functions that require greater privacy such as offices, meeting rooms, conference rooms, laboratories, bathrooms or kitchens.

The outer façade of the building is completely permeable and reveals on sight the interplay of the different levels and the fluidity of the internal and external spirals. The building could seem to appear as an urban car showroom, with its corners and angles filled with tempting shining automobiles.

The objective of this project is to become an international point of reference in the world of automobiles and an unmistakable landmark for the territory of Nanjing, immediately recognizable by whoever transits the surrounding roads but also visible from the sky and, why not, even from the satellites from which an increasing number of internet-nauts explore the sights of the globe.

A mixed-use program of office and retail, with private residences above, define the Blumenhaus. The building is an integral component of a larger effort by the city of Zürich to rebrand its Escher-Wyss district through a metamorphosis of new development, including green spaces, bikes lanes, and a plethora of new housing. The district is characterized by its industrial heritage, and palette of raw concrete, burgundy brick, and rusted steel; it is bounded to its north by the Limmat River, and to its south by the entanglement of railway tracks that lead to the city’s main train station. Blumenhaus is adjacent to a former ship-building hall–or Schiffbau, in German–of Escher Wyss & Cie., an industrial company that was absorbed by another in the twentieth century; its expertise was turbines and electrical engineering. When the company left this location, the area began to decline in its industrial prominence, opening a path toward its redevelopment. Yet, some industry continues to inhabit the district, enabling a confluence of gastronomic, commercial, service, and other residential-supporting businesses to further define this once neglected area, just north of Zürich’s old city center.

When Escher-Wyss is juxtaposed against the city center–which abuts Lake Zurich–industrial relics dominate; yet it is intertwined with the center, by the Hardbrücke railway station, in tandem with numerous trams. Stealthily slipping into this ‘rough’ yet regenerating urban context, Blumenhaus’ façade is finished with enormous matte-aluminum panels, nearly each of which is punctuated by the silhouettes of hibiscus flowers, and inversely, reliefs of the same patterning. These custom-designed, and ornament infused panels were crafted through an industrial process of ‘stamping’ the patterning through, or imprinting it onto, the aluminum, by sheet-forming and cutting; a process that involved metal-workers. The panels’ matte finish–and hibiscus flower silhouettes–lessens the lust of their shine, which allows their scale to recede when seen from afar, or at street-level. As the building ages, the oxidation process will add a weathered appearance to its exposed façades, allowing it to ‘age’ along with the area’s already ‘aging’ relics. Blumenhaus’ materiality, thus acknowledges its context’s storied industrial past, yet its incorporation of technology is readily apparent, only upon second-glance.

Blumenhaus’ ground floor façade is free on three sides, which maximizes street-facing frontage, and ensures the ground and first floors remain flexible. The west façade abuts an adjacent housing building, at an acute angle, which enabled the creation of the parking garage entry along the northern façade; it slightly curves as it descends, allowing the inversely curved space at ground floor, to function as the residents’ entry point. Accordioned matte-aluminum panels, ‘punched’ with the same hibiscus flower silhouette at high density, enable physical security for the building’s inhabitants, by acting as a gate, while allowing visual permeability. Numerous cloverleaf columns are to be found throughout the interior, echoing exterior ornament; a spiraling concrete staircase swirls from the parking garage to the first floor. The top five floors contain 23 units, all rental apartments oriented in at least two directions–each with a north-south orientation, or an exposed corner–with most having access to natural light along the southern façade. Loggias wrap the Blumenhaus’ three free façades, which function as balconies. Four units of the top floor have staircases that lead to individual, generously sized private roof terraces; floor to ceiling glazing and oversized opening elements prelude exterior spaces, thus enabling ‘loggia living’.

Wiel Arets Architects (WAA) is a globally active architecture and design firm, whose work extends to education and publishing, with studios located in the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. Comprised of an international team of architects, designers, thinkers, and administrators, the firm is currently involved in large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. Its architecture and design emerges from research and a balance of hybrid-programming solutions, which adapt to and anticipate future contextual change.

The renovation of this established landmark shopping and commercial complex in Xujiahui will deliver a refreshing, fashionable and aspirational new destination to the city. At the heart of the concept is the integration of shopping and non-shopping spaces and experiences throughout the seven storey of the building. Our creative planning and design will turn this well recognised address of Shanghai into a stage of experimental new ways of enjoying shopping and free time echoing contemporary demands of the ever young and mind-changing clientele.

Shenyang is a major sub-provincial city of the People’s Republic of China. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Liaoning Province, as well as the largest city in Northeast China by urban population.

Shenyang CR Land Twenty-Four City Sales Center is located at an old industrial base in Tiexi District. The new planning and transformation have been developmental task of contemporary Tiexi District.

From the film “24 City” describing Chinese industrial workers directed by the Chinese film director and screenwriter Jia Zhangke; to the birth of China’s fifth Twenty-Four City. It’s our turn to design this renovation program.

I am not nostalgic for the past, I just want to remember it, said by Anselm Kiefer.

The modern lines combined with red old bricks creates strong collisions and thoughts shuttling back and forth in both spatially and temporally. Each tree plays a role of effect additive. Each brick seems to be telling us time, stories, lives and humanities……

In order to show the past views and the old scene for visitors, we display some old machines, pictures and decorations. It looks like a cozy and serene history museum, which smells like a cup of rich cappuccino that is reminiscent of taste.

This place contains too much of its history, too much of its memories. When the bright sunshine shining down to the corridor, you also might be curious about what have ever happened here as we are.

Someone said he enjoyed staying here for couples of cozy afternoons; Someone said he liked to watch the sunshine shining down to the old building; Someone said he liked the gently flickering shadow and the aroma of fresh coffee permeated the sales center.